Death's Door

The waters between the tip of the peninsula and Washington, Plum and Rock,etc. islands is called Death's Door. The waters were treacherous before good navigational aids -- lots of wrecks. There was a fog bank over Washington island right where the cool and warm air were meeting. The winds and water are always doing something different here than elsewhere in the county. Its also the coolest area.

The picture with the waves washing up onto the shoreline -- you can see that the shoreline looks "piled up" -- the piles are actually shells of dead zebra mussels. The pile was 3 feet high and four feet wide and extended down the beach at least a quarter mile. So instead of walking on sand or rock you crunch along on top of all these shells.

The zebra mussels get dislodged with the wave action and thrown up on shore. Many times if you see a pile like this you can smell it first. The dead mussels -- still have some mussel in them that rots. These mussel shells were all very clean and bleached out.

Cave Pt

We did some more exploring on our days off since we couldn't fish -- the waves were 5 to 8 feet high-- too much for us. CavePoint County Park has the rock formations with the holes along the shoreline. It's on the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula next to White Sands State Park. It's a small park but very pretty like most of the county parks here and the county parks are all free. We were surprised to see the beaches were closed on the lakeside due to Ecoli bacteria.

I also took a picture of Bailey's Harbor. Its a cute little town on the Lake Michigan side north of CavePoint park. All of the boats tied up in the marina there were rigged for salmon and lake trout fishing. We aren't really interested in this kind of fishing and we didn't pay the extra money for stamps to be able to catch them. Neither one of us like lake trout and don't like salmon enough to go after them. We also don't want to go out on the "big" lake --- the waters of Green Bay are plenty big enough.

The picture with grass on either side of water is a picture of the canal through Sturgeon Bay that dumps out into Lake Michigan. Its manmade and allows ships to cut through Sturgeon Bay to get from Green Bay to Lake Michigan. Ships had to go up and around the tip of the peninsula before it was cut and navigate through waters called Death's Door. Lots of shipwrecks there before the days of modern navigation.

Sailing

The owner of the campground (our boss, John) and his wife, Marty, took us out sailing on their 35 ft sailboat. The sailboat is called Rainbows End. Neither of us had ever been sailing before and we weren't sure we would enjoy it. I guess we've seen too many movies where the sailboat is tipped so far over that it looks like everyone will just fall right out. They keep their sailboat on a mooring in Egg Harbor. John has a dinghy on shore that he rigs a 3 hp motor to and use it to motor out to the sailboat. So we had to safely get into the dinghy and then climb aboard the sailboat. Once onboard we just kept out of the way while the two of them worked together to take the boat out to sea.

It was very interesting watching them get the sails up and catch the wind. Jim helped tighten some of the ropes while they "tacked and jibbed". It was a beautiful evening on the waters of Green Bay with just enough wind to make it fun and the perfect temperature. Sipping wine and sailing along -- we both decided that sailing was great fun -- as spectators. We got to enjoy a beautiful sunset on the water. Of course then the wind kicked up so we got to experience a little of the "tilting" or "heeling" but it was still a pretty smooth ride even with the waves kicking up. It was dark when we got back to Egg Harbor. Riding in the little dinghy in the dark was a little scary -- probably the most scary thing about the adventure.

It was very nice of John and Marty to take us out sailing. I guess they try to take all of their workampers out for a sail at least once. John also flies a small plane out of the Cherryland airport in Sturgeon Bay and has offered to take Jim flying with him. Jim is going to take him up on it but wants to wait until fall when the air is smoother. (Its a very small plane so the ride will be bumpy regardless. )

A Fish

Friends of ours camped for a few days with us over the 4th of July. We had a good time inspite of being the busiest weekend of the season at the campground. I have a picture of their campsite. I have to say the campsites are all pretty nice here even though the campground is huge -- over 300 sites. The campground was pretty much full but it was still fairly quiet. No loud screaming children -- they were all fairly well behaved, no incessant dog barking -- you can't leave your dog unattended and no shooting of fireworks was allowed in the campground so all in all in was a nice weekend.

Jim took his buddy out fishing and it was so rough that they couldn't fish out in the bigger water. Jim managed to catch a small mouth bass -- finally a nice fish. It was 19" long and he caught it right in Sturgeon Bay in some shallow water. His buddy caught a couple of nice sheepsheads.

We all went to a fish boil on the evening of the 4th at the White Gull Inn in Fish Creek. A nice place to stay with a restaurant that is open to the public. Watching how they cook the meal outside over a fire and do the "boilover" is as big a part of the meal as eating the finished product. Of course it wouldn't be a Door County meal without cherry pie for dessert.

Sturgeon Bay

We like to eat out once in a while at Apple-bee's in Sturgeon Bay. It's right on the waterfront of the bay. It's not too expensive and a lot less crowded than the waterfront eateries in the upper part of Door County. You can see the big ore carriers from your seat in the restaurant. If you look closely at the name on the ore carrier to the far right -- it is the Arthur M Anderson -- this is the ore carrier that was the closest to the Edmund Fitzgerald when it sank in the storm. You can also look out at the docks and see the small yachts and sailboats as well as the old steel bridge that is no longer in service. They are trying to "save their bridge" because it is an historic landmark. If you own one of these pleasure boats docked in Sturgeon Bay, from what we've observed, you sail or motor up to Fish Creek -- about 20 miles --and dock there for a few days and then go back to your Sturgeon Bay mooring.

We ventured farther out into the bay to try our luck fishing and went all the way around Chambers Island. This is a fairly large island about half way out in the bay -- maybe about 15 miles out from shore. The island is owned by a catholic archdiocese. There is also a lighthouse on the island. The picture shows it and you can picnic on the grounds if you can figure out a way to get your boat to shore.

We caught more huge rock bass and a sheepshead (a type of sucker fish) and more Gobie (one of several exotic species that is ruining the fisherie). We also fished closer to Sturgeon Bay and found other walleye fishermen -- a good sign-- but no one was catching any. Jim caught a clump of Zebra mussels fishing along the bottom. They clump together and one of them in the clump latched on to his bait ( a leech) and wouldn't let go. Zebra mussels are another exotic species.

THE BIRDS

The picture with the cabin on the edge of the water -- if you click on it -- you can see that its covered with birds. They were flying all around and obviously had nests on the grounds. This cabin is on an island so the people can't really get away from these birds and must have learned to just live with them.

I caught my first fish -- a good size rock bass -- it was 15". I've never seen one this big. Usually these are the "little" fish you catch by docks. I caught it by Little Strawberry Island -- where the cabin with the birds was. The island is just a few miles from the shore of Peninsula State Park. We were disappointed that we didn't catch a small mouth bass or a walleye but at least its a fish.

The picture that was taken from on high -- was taken from a tower at Potawatami State Park. It overlooks Sturgeon Bay and on the far shore you can see the cliffs of the old quarry that is now a county park with a boat launch. The finger of land sticking out into the bay has private homes on it -- you can imagine what that real estate is worth. Real estate in Door County is still expensive. I assume prices have come down with the poor economy but you could have fooled me.

On Our Days Off

If you look at the picture of the tugboat closely -- click on it to make it larger -- you see that it has a rope tied to it that is really tight. One end was tied to the tug and the other end was tied to the cast iron mooring on the breakwater and there were measurement devices attached to it for a test. They were testing the rope's tensile strength -- how hard you can pull the rope before it breaks-- The rope didn't break before they quit pulling so I guess it passed the "test".

We finally took pictures of the restaurant with the goats on the grass roof. The grass is very brown where the goats have been "mowing". The restaurant is called Al Johnson's and its in Sister Bay. We haven't been in the place to check out the story behind the goats.

If you click on the picture of the water to make it larger you can see the ore carrier. We were out fishing -- maybe two or three miles offshore and saw the ore carrier about 9 miles out from where we were. It is very strange to share the water with really big ships. The nice thing about fishing in the waters of Green Bay is that the big ships have to stay in the very middle of the bay to avoid all the hazards. Most of the structure we are fishing is closer to shore and unless we are going to cross the bay and go to the Upper Peninsula we shouldn't have to worry about the really big ships.

No fish caught yet -- we hear they are catching walleye like mad about 35 miles south of us where the water is warmer.